Telefónica: UNICA Lab waves in NETSCOUT, RADCOM VNFs

The telco is setting standards and expectations for vendors working within its infrastructure, with demands for compatibility across hybrid environments.

Telefónica gave the green light for virtual network functions (VNF) from service assurance solutions providers NETSCOUT Systems and RADCOM to be used within its UNICA virtualisation programme, which is underpinned by the OpenStac platform.

NETSCOUT gets in early with virtualisation visibility

US-based NETSCOUT trumpeted the fact that its vSCOUT and vSTREAM — which it describes as ‘visibility-as-a-service VNFs’ — were certified by the UNICA Lab after completing tests that demonstrated “pervasive visibility” across physical, virtual, and cloud networks, as well as interoperability with other VNFs on the UNICA platform.

vSCOUT and vSTREAM are said to make use of adaptive service intelligence technology to collect, organise, and analyse traffic and application data to provide information about the performance of applications, networks, and the entire service delivery infrastructure. The network data visibility provided by the NETSCOUT solutions is said to be vital for providing end-to-end service assurance, and the delivery of application and service control in both hybrid and pure cloud environments. In highlighting the significance of this capability, it was noted by NETSCOUT that the introduction of virtualisation has caused problems for data visibility.

vSCOUT and vSTREAM are said to be compatible with the full suite of OpenStack and VMware network administrative tools, while NETSCOUT also offers support for private cloud environments as well as public clouds from Telefónica partners Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure (see separate report).

Antonio Elizondo, Head of Network Virtualisation Strategy and Technology at Telefónica, and responsible for the UNICA VNF certification programme, said NETSCOUT was “one of the first” network and application management vendors to be certified by the Lab.

OSM key to Telefónica collaboration

Bruce Kelley, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice-President of Service Provider Business Operations at NETSCOUT, told SDx Central that compatibility of all VNFs with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s Open Source MANO (OSM) platform was a “requirement to sell to Telefónica”.

In March 2018, Telefónica was reported to have kicked off the process to select an integrator of OSM, and is expected to make a final decision on a supplier in the second half of 2018 (Telefónicawatch, #125).

NETSCOUT’s short-and mid-term future was thrown into turmoil in January 2018 after the provider reduced guidance for its third quarter of fiscal 2018 and the full fiscal year ending 31 March 2018, citing issues such as a “substantial decline” in spending from its largest service provider customer (reported to be Verizon Communications). The warning followed a period when concern regarding the competitive position of the vendor had been building, with peers such as RADCOM appearing to make headway with major operators such as Verizon. However, in May 2018, Anil Singhal, President and Chief Executive of NETSCOUT, said the company had been able to report “reasonably good” earnings-per-share for the year against the revised guidance, even as revenue performance continued to flag. NETSCOUT also said that “over two dozen service providers” were deploying its NFV solutions in their networks, and pointed to a recent contract win from VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands (Vodafonewatch, #163).

Rival RADCOM also in on the act

Later in May 2018, Israel-based RADCOM, regarded as a key rival of NETSCOUT, announced that the RADCOM Service Assurance(MaveriQ) had also been certified to run as a VNF in UNICA.

RADCOM said the solution “passed both functional and performance testing” and is now part of Telefónica’s UNICA VNF catalogue, “enabling full-service assurance lifecycle management using UNICA’s cloud orchestrator”.The vendor also noted that Telefónica is planning to expand the UNICA platform into more regions in Latin America, and highlighted its existing relationship with the Group on the continent.

“A critical function in the UNICA platform will be probe-based service assurance that will be integrated across the network and managed dynamically by the UNICA cloud orchestrator to ensure end-to-end service quality and maintain customer experience.” – Rami Amit, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Product, RADCOM.

RADCOM further pointed out that it is working with the OSM community to identify a standard approach to modelling VNFs to ensure they can be imported into an operator’s NFV environment quickly and automatically.

More potential assurance partners circling

Earlier in 2018, US testing and measurement solutions provider, and NETSCOUT and RADCOM rival, Viavi Solutions identified Telefónica as a potential key customer as it aims to expand its business in Latin America (Telefónicawatch, #126). Earlier, at Mobile World Congress 2016, Cobham Wireless had flagged a collaboration with US-based Luxoft Holding and Telefónica on a proof of concept on the deployment and management of VNFs, which was said to illustrate how vendors could reduce time-to-market for NFV and VNF (Telefónicawatch, #105).

Vendors playing a major role in the UNICA virtualisation programme include Altran, Ericsson, Huawei Technologies, and Red Hat (Telefónicawatch, passim) – although key to Telefónica’s vision is the avoidance of vendor lock-in.

Image: Augusto Navarro / Unsplash

Contents

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

GROUP

Management up-date

Álvarez-Pallete hails his technology company [p.6]

Designing the future

People

GLOBAL RESOURCES

Partners

Suppliers

Interview: CCS’s Greaves on working with Telefónica [p.11]

Building a Telefónica relationship

Today Madrid, tomorrow the world?

Hardware making things possible for small vendors and big operators

CCS interview [p.11]

Trials of TIP for small vendors

CCS on the O2/CTIL London wireless network [p.15]

CCS background

Telefónica Business Solutions

Telefónica trumpets strategic alliance with AWS [p.16]

AWS takes its place beside Azure

Telxius teams with Equinix [p.17]

TIWS reaches another level of automation [p.18]

Automation of operations complete

Next step: all-IP voice

Virtualisation

Telefónica builds on SD-WAN ambitions with Nokia and Nuage [p.20]

UNICA Lab waves in NETSCOUT, RADCOM VNFs [p.22]

NETSCOUT gets in early with virtualisation visibility

OSM key to Telefónica collaboration

Rival RADCOM also in on the act

More potential assurance partners circling [p.23]

Digital services

Blockchain

Telefónica and Rivetz re-up relationship [p.25]

Telefónica joins up for inter-carrier blockchain testing

Open Future

Content

Telefónica adds Netflix to content offer

Spirit of co-opetition lives on

Part of a wider content strategy

Álvarez-Pallete and Hastings get pally on Twitter

Netflix already big in Spain [p.28]

Security

Telefónica claims quantum leap in encryption technology

Valencia named as cybersecurity HQ [p.30]

LATIN AMERICA

Argentina

Ericsson to upgrade Movistar RAN network in Argentina [p.33]

Ericsson progress presented as a win against Huawei

Brazil

Ericsson and Telefónica team on farm 4G IoT [p.35 ]

Netcracker maintains its hold within Vivo [p.36]

Colombia

Ecuador

Mexico

EUROPE

Germany

Álvarez-Pallete underlines commitment to Germany [38]

E-Plus integration taking longer than anticipated

Group offers muscle, but won’t influence decisions

Telefónica wary of Vodafone acquisition plans [p.39]

Spain

Ola, O2 [p.41]

Personalised service – at a respectful distance

Telefónica upfront on regulatory disparity

Serrahima makes a splash with O2 pick

British and German feathers ruffled?

Telefónica accelerates copper closures [p.43]

Telefónica brings Google into Living Cloud [p.44]

Movistar VeriSure Hogar closes down [p.45]

UK

Arqiva backs O2 small-cell rollout [p.46]

Beacon light begins to fade

O2 gets Netflix [p.47]

Further reading

INDEX

Index

Symbols

21st Century Fox

Sky plc 7, 28

A

Acision 8

ADVA Optical Networking 29

AI 33

Alcatel-Lucent 15

Alphabet

— Google 33, 44

— G Suite 44

Altran 23

Amazon 16, 22, 28, 44

— Amazon Web Services 16, 22, 44

Arqiva 46

B

BT Group 14, 21, 25, 29

C

Cambridge Broadband 15

CCS 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 46

Cisco Systems, Inc 21

CNMC 28, 42

Cobham Wireless 23

Colt Group 25

Conectel 36

ContentWise 27

D

Dell Technologies

— VMware 17, 21, 22

Deloitte 7, 8

Deutsche Telekom 7, 15, 38

E

Equinix 17

Ericsson 8, 12, 13, 23, 27, 33, 34, 35, 43

European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) 18, 22

F

Facebook 15, 17, 33

— Telecom Infra Project 15

— WhatsApp 35

G

Gartner Group 20

General Electric 7

Groupon 7

GSM Association (GSMA)

— Mobile World Congress 23, 33

H

HBO 28

Huawei 8, 23, 29, 34, 45

I

Ingram Micro 11

J

Juniper Networks 21

L

Luxoft Holding 23

M

MásMóvil 41, 42

— Yoigo (Xfera) 41

Microsoft 11, 16, 17, 21, 22, 33, 44

— Azure 11, 16, 22, 44

N

NEC 21, 36

— Netcracker 36

NET 22, 23

Netflix 26, 27, 28, 47

NETSCOUT 22, 23

Nokia 12, 20, 21, 43

Nuage Networks 20, 21

O

Orange 28, 43

— Spain 28, 43

P

PCCW 25

R

RADCOM 22, 23

Raízen 35

Red Hat 21, 23

Regions

— EMEA

— Belgium 44

— Europe 7, 21, 22, 26, 37, 42, 43, 44, 47

— Finland 44

— Germany 7, 38, 39, 42, 45

— Israel 23

— Netherlands 22, 44

— Spain 7, 16, 17, 20, 26, 27, 28, 30, 33, 38, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47

— UK 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 29, 33, 45, 46

— Latin America 15, 23, 26, 27, 32, 34, 35, 38, 45, 47

— Argentina 33, 34, 38

— Brazil 7, 8, 17, 33, 35, 36, 38, 42

— Chile 26, 35

— Colombia 34

— Ecuador 35, 36

— Mexico 7, 36

— Peru 36

— North America

— USA 17

Rivetz 25

Royal KPN 38

RTVE 27

S

Samsung 13

Securitas Direct 45

Siemens 7

Sigfox 45

Symantec 11

T

Technologies

— 3G 13

— 3.5G 43

— 4G

— LTE 12, 13, 35, 45, 46

— 5G 11, 13, 14, 33, 38, 43, 46

— ADSL 43

— Blockchain 25

— Broadband 15, 28, 33, 41, 45

— Business/Operations Support Systems (BSS/OSS) 33, 36

— Cloud computing 44

— Ethernet 13, 18, 21

— GSM 13

— ICT 8

— Internet of Things 16, 26, 30, 33

— IP 13, 15, 18, 21

— IPTV 27

— Linux 21

— LPWA 45

— MIMO 14

— MPLS 21

— NB-IoT 45

— Network functions virtualisation (NFV) 17, 22, 23, 29

— NGN 13, 38

— OpenStack 17, 21, 22

— PaaS (Platform as a Service) 16

— SIM 16, 25, 41, 47

— SMS 35

— Software defined networking (SDN) 18, 21, 29

— TV 26, 27, 28

— VDSL 13

— WLAN

— Wi-Fi 11, 12

Telefónica Group 6, 7, 8, 11, 17, 25, 26, 27, 38, 39, 45, 47

— Associates and investments

— Sigfox 45

— Digital services

— AURA 33, 45

— ElevenPaths 8, 16, 25, 30

— Open Future 7, 26, 35

— OTT 26, 27

— Tuenti 42

— Wayra 7, 26, 35

— Directors

— Cirac, Ignacio 29

— Löscher, Peter 7

— Europe

— E-Plus 38

— Germany 7, 38, 39, 42

— giffgaff 8

— O2 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 33, 38, 39, 41, 42, 45, 46, 47

— Spain 7, 20, 21, 42, 43, 44, 45

— Telefónica Deutschland 7, 36, 39

— UK 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 26, 42, 46, 47

— Executives

— Álvarez-Pallete Lopez, José María 6, 27, 28, 38, 39

— Barahona, Claudio 26

— Cantarelli, Stefano 8

— Castillo Sanz, Eva 7

— Devine, Amanda 7

— Díaz Hernández, María 8

— Dominguez, Jose Luis 8

— Elizondo, Antonio 22

— Franks, Robert 7

— Garcia, Maria Luisa 7

— Gomez, Santiago 7

— Haas, Markus 39

— Mata, Joaquin 21

— Moratilla, Daniel 8

— Naiksatam, Ashwin 8

— Navarro, Eduardo 8, 35

— Pavlovic, Natascha 7

— Phillips, Tristan 7

— Ponce de Leon, Marcela 7

— Prado, Elisa 8

— Rava, Federico 33

— Rodríguez-Ramos, Jaime 7

— Saadi, Miloud 7

— Seitz, Alexander 7

— Serrahima, Pedro 42

— Wood, Alison 8

— Zunzunegui, Adrian 7

— Global Resources

— BRUSA 17

— Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure 11, 46

— MAREA 17

— Telefónica Business Solutions 8, 16, 36

— Telefónica Global Services 7

— Telefónica International Wholesale Services 18

— Telxius 8, 17, 45

— UNICA 21, 22, 23

— Latin America

— Brazil 8, 33, 35, 36, 42

— Colombia 34

— Mexico 7, 36

— Vivo 8, 33, 36, 41, 42

– Movistar+ 26, 28, 33

– Products and services

— Fusión 45

— Living Cloud 21, 44

— Movistar+ 26, 28, 33

— Movistar Play 26

— Movistar Series 27

— Movistar VeriSure Hogar 45

— O2 Refresh 47

— pay-TV 26, 27, 28, 33, 39, 47

— Simplicity 41

Telstra 25

Tesco 8

Tuenti 42

Twitter 27, 28

U

United Nations 35

V

Verizon Communications 12, 22

— Verizon Wireless 12

Viacom 27

Viavi 23

VMware 17, 21, 22

Vodafone Group 28, 39, 46

— Germany 39

— UK 46

W

We-Technologies 26

World Bank 34

X

Xura 8

Z

ZTE 12

About

AboutTelefónicawatch

Report: #127
Published: June 2018
Next report: July 2018
For more information visit: Telefónicawatch